According to the Czech local news magazine Respekt, Russian Intelligence Services used two computer companies in Prague for performing cyber attacks.

It is alleged that the Czech Security Forces disclosed the activities of the cyber attack center in early 2018.

According to a journalistic investigation, the two companies were formally engaged in the sale of computer hardware and software, but in reality their employees were also preparing hacker attacks using their computers.

Journalists found out that part of the equipment for companies in the Czech Republic was brought from Russia through third countries by cars of the Russian Embassy with diplomatic numbers. The computer companies got this technique also through the diplomatic mission.

The investigation said that the hacker group included both Czechs and Russians who received Czech citizenship. The group could cooperate with several similar Russian groups operating in other countries.

It is interesting to note that in September last year in the Czech Republic for hacking the system of issuing residence permits detained 8 Russians and Vietnamese. Russian hackers had hacked the servers of the Czech Foreign Ministry in the interests of the Vietnamese for a fee, who can legalize their countrymen’s stay in Europe.

A vulnerability has been found in the web version of Google photos which lets malicious websites access the sensitive information related to the photos such as date and geographic coordinates.

On the basis of this metadata information of your photos, they will be tagged by Google photos automatically.

The metadata of any photo allows details to be moved along with the photograph file which is readable by end users, hardware and software.

How the Hack Functions

To begin with, the hackers have to befool the user and trick him into accessing the malicious website while he is logged into his Google Photos account.

As soon as the malicious website opens in the web browser, it generates answers to the questions the attacker has by stealthily generating requests to the Google Photos search endpoint.

As stated in a report by Imperva, the hacker can keep a record of the queries which have been already asked and resume the process from there on upon your next visit onto any of his infectious websites.

Reportedly, the vulnerability has been patched by Google after Imperva brought it to their knowledge.

After its social media website Google+, the company has announced that they are now shutting down its Inbox app.

Google will start notifying all its users about the closure of its Inbox from March 18th through a pop-up screen that will pop up every time users will be on the app.

The notification will also include a link to the Gmail app to ensure that it does not disappoint its users. Gmail has recently updated its app with new eye-catching features like Smart Reply, Smart Compose, and Follow-ups.

Now, it is really difficult to find Inbox by Gmail on the Google Play Stores.

The notification released by Google reads:
“This app will be going away in 13 days,” the alert reads. “You can find your favorite inbox features in the Google app. Your messages are already waiting for you.”

While on their official website Google said:

“Inbox is signing off. Find your favorite features in the new Gmail. We are saying goodbye to Inbox at the end of March 2019. While we were here, we found a new way to email with ideas like snooze, nudges, Smart Reply and more. That’s why we’ve brought your favorite features to Gmail to help you get more done. All your conversations are already waiting for you. See you there.”

Google has been imposed fine of $1.68 billion (1.49 billion euro/£1.28billion) by European Union regulators for blocking the advertisement of rival search engine companies.

This is the third time in the last two years when the company has been fined multi-billion dollar by the EU antitrust.

The EU's commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, notified the company about their decision at a news conference in Brussels on Wednesday.

'Today's decision is about how Google abused its dominance to stop websites using brokers other than the AdSense platform,' Vestager said.

According to the probe, the Google and its parent company, Alphabet, violated the EU antitrust rules by limiting the contract clauses with other websites which uses AdSense, the clauses prevented websites from placing ads of Google rival companies.

The company 'prevented its rivals from having a chance to innovate and to compete in the market on their merits,' Vestager said.

'Advertisers and website owners, they had less choice and likely faced higher prices that would be passed on to consumers.'

Just after the announcement of fine, the company said that they have made several changes and will make a number of other changes to address EU antitrust regulators' concerns.

'We've always agreed that healthy, thriving markets are in everyone's interest,' Kent Walker, senior vice-president of global affairs, said in a statement.

'We've already made a wide range of changes to our products to address the Commission's concerns.

'Over the next few months, we'll be making further updates to give more visibility to rivals in Europe,' he continued.

Fresh e-mails have been floating around warning users to
back their Google+ data up by April 2, 2019 before it gets deleted forever.

In October, last year last year as announced by Google the
platform was planned to be shutting the aforementioned platform.

The reasons outlined were lack of usage, discovery of API
bugs, leakage of information and later on discoveries of more bugs.

And as of a few days, Google+ started its email flotation
to warn users to backup data and save it before it’s too late.

Per the mail, the shutting process would not in any way
affect the other Google products including YouTube, Google Photos and Google
Drive.

The
following steps could be followed to go about the Backup:

1.Go to the Google+ download page.

2.By putting a check-mark on them select the data
categories you want to save

3.Click on “Next Step”.

4.Mention how exactly you’d like to retrieve the archives,
that is, via emails, links or would you want them saved in Dropbox, Google
Drive or One Drive.

5.You could also decide how large you want those files
to be.

6.Once done, click “Create Archive” and Google
will start to create an archive for you.

After following all of the above steps you’ll be presented
with an archive with all your material saved in it in the form of HTML files
and images respectively.

Also to be on the safer side, it’s highly advised by Google+
to start this process quickly and get it done by March 31, 2019.

This would only endure that the archive preparation is done
in good time.